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Mayor walks out of meeting while being criticized by candidate Jackson (w/video)

Mayor Jeri Muoio tried laughing off commission candidate Sean Jackson’s insults at Monday’s meeting. And when Jackson wouldn’t back down, the mayor simply left the dais.

“Jeri, I’ll never forget you said to me one day in this parking garage, you said, ‘Do not trust (Commissioner) Kim Mitchell,” said Jackson during public comment.

Muoio shook her head and tried laughing it off, and Jackson responded, “Don’t laugh and don’t shake your head. I don’t have to come up here and make these things up. You said, ‘Don’t trust Kim, because she can’t be trusted.’ But I’ve come to find that you are the very person who cannot be trusted.”

Muoio then walked off, and Jackson continued.

“This is serious,” he said. “Jeri, you ought not walk away when I’m talking to you, and like every constituent, I deserve the same respect. You ran your campaign for mayor on transparency and government efficiency and almost a year later, since you’ve been mayor, there’s been nothing transparent and nothing efficient about this municipality.”

Muoio later returned for commission and mayor’s comments. Jackson, running against incumbent Sylvia Moffett and write-in candidate Paul McCullough in the District 1 race, previously served as a volunteer for Muoio’s campaign. But he has criticized Muoio since she decided to endorse Moffett.

With Monday’s commission meeting being the last before next week’s election, emotions were high. During the meeting, Jackson also accused Moffett of knowing that an illegal group home was operating in her district, and he said Mitchell and Ike Robinson were the only commissioners “fighting for residents.”

“Vote for me, but whoever you vote for, something has to be done about the real quality, real efficiency and real transparency in government,” Jackson said. “If not we’ll have the same foolishness we’ve got coming from this dais right now, and two people can’t do it by themselves.”